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GungHo-owned Playphone signs up with Cyanogen to increase reach for its curated Game Store

An emerging store for emerging markets

Date Type Companies involved Size
June 10th, 2015 partnership Cyanogen
PlayPhone
Not disclosed
GungHo-owned Playphone signs up with Cyanogen to increase reach for its curated Game Store

In an interesting deal, Android-based mobile OS outfit Cyanogen has partnered up with Playphone.

The Android games store and community platform has been in stealth mode since it was bought by Japanese gaming giant GungHo Online in late 2014.

How, however, it looks like it's back and aggressively closing deals that will see its curated store available in emerging markets.

It's already signed up with the key US carriers, and most recently has launched in Singapore and Indonesia, with India and Taiwan due next.

The Cyanogen distribution deal - which at this stage is described as being for "key international markets" - helps as it has over 50 million users of its open source CyanogenMod and commercial Cyanogen OS in over 190 countries,

Also, a new wave of handset OEMs targetting big territories like China and India, as well as the emerging powerhouse that is southeast Asia, are using Cyanogen to give them more options over what software they install on their phones.

For example, Cyanogen recently signed a deal with Microsoft over integrating its software products.

Win-win

In this way, Playphone hopes the more than 4,000 games it has available, combined with discovery and community features such as gamer rewards, a free paid game of the day, and regular promotions, will enable it to take market share, and revenue, from the standard Google Play portal.

It also has its own local billing solutions. 

"It's definitely a win-win," says Playphone CEO Ron Czerny.

"Cyanogen's reach in international markets aligns perfectly with Playphone's focus on emerging markets.

Playphone's Game Store running on vanilla Android

"We both have customized UIs and features that are tailored to each region, and share a vision of improving the existing user experience.

"Cyanogen also provides Playphone with distribution opportunities on commercial devices, which increases marketing and awareness."

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.